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| The Nation Monday, January 18, 2010 |
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AFTER MY ARTICLE about the lottery vending machines was published last Monday, Ministers and MPs of the Democrat Party came out to voice their disagreement and tried to pinpoint that what I wrote was not true. A lot of people, including a press personality, called in the belief that the information revealed in my article must be correct, otherwise the Democrat Party members would not have emerged to cry off at the same time. I would confirm here again that the main gist of the article is all true as hereby explained. First of all, in my article, I did not mention any party's name, referring only to the "big political party". It is the Democrats themselves who came out and mentioned the name Democrat Party! The fact that one and all of them got alarmed is confirmation of their awareness of the existence of an issue.
Now, I can use the name Democrat Party in this article. Secondly, one MP tried to convince the press that my information was wrong by explaining that the big five wholesalers emerged during the time of the Chart Thai government and were abolished during the Thai Rak Thai government, and none operates now. However, the fact is that in 2548[2005], during the Thai Rak Thai government, a change was made in the quota allotment system to look as if the lotteries were allotted directly to a large number of second layered agents without passing through the big five. On the contrary, in practice, the allotted lotteries found their way to gather at the big five which still effectively controls the distribution network and sets the sale price down the line.
Doesn't this MP know this? I doubt it. As for the information that the big five emerged during the Chart Thai government, the formal record confirms that the five companies were formed in 2538 during the Chart Thai government to act as formal first-tiered wholesalers. However, it was well known that all of them had been agents in the lottery distribution system under some other names for quite some time. Again I wonder why this MP does not know this.
Thirdly, when the same MP mentioned the emergence of the big five during the Chart Thai government, certain words he used implicitly indicated the close relationship among them. However, the very same MP confirmed that the Chart Thai Party was the one that initiated the vending machine project and the purchase contract was signed around the end of that government in 2539. If the big five really had a close relation with the Chart Thai party, why would that government introduce the vending machines which would be against the benefit of the big five? Fourthly, that MP also admitted that, when he became Deputy Minister of Finance and was in charge of the Government Lottery Office (GLO), he did not make any moves on the project, even after his initiated poll found a majority of the population accepted the vending machines. This confirmed what I wrote in my article last Monday. Lastly, everyone who voiced an opinion agreed that the final sale price of the normal lottery is much higher than the price fixed by the GLO.
Among those who voiced an opinion, Minister Korn Chatikavanij seemed the only one to hit the point, explaining it straightforwardly, and was courageous enough to announce his intention to solve the overpricing problem of the normal lottery. Mr. Minister, if you are serious about it, there is a ready solution which would also not go against the policy of the Prime Minister as announced to the media. The Prime Minister said clearly that he did not want the GLO to etablish a two- and three- digit lottery as it might lure youngsters to more gambling, while the Minister of Finance wants to terminate the overpriced lottery and the government is also seeking a way not to be sued by the seller of the machines. A simple way out that will achieve all the three mentioned objectives is by terminating the project to sell two- and three- digit lotteries and switch all the machines bought under the contract to be used for a normal lottery. By this, there will not be additional two -and three- digit lotteries to tempt the youngsters, the players in a normal lottery could buy from the machine for Bt80 and the sellers could not sue the GLO.
The only issue that would need to be addressed is the income of the War Veterans Organisation in Thailand, one of the wholesalers, and the job opportunity for the blind, who are currently selling some of the normal lottery tickets. It should not be too difficult for the Ministry of Finance to find a proper way out as the sale through the vending machines would generate full revenue of Bt80 per ticket without having to discount as high as 12per cent or over Bt9 per ticket, as being offered to the wholesalers now. The higher income is quite big and could be partially allotted in some proper form to assist the war veterans.
As for the blind lottery sellers, the GLO might opt to print lottery tickets for the same amount that were sold through the blind group, so they could keep their job in parallel with the sale through the vending machines. Even though they have to sell at Bt80 per ticket, the amount of discount allowed would be enough to maintain their usual income, if the GLO would deal with them directly as they could then all have a share in the discount. The above proposal is only one option. I believe the officials at GLO could find an even better solution.
I wrote this article without the intention of looking for a culprit, but simply want everyone involved to face facts and try to come up with a proper solution so the public will not be taken advantage of any more.
Considering this with fair mind, it can be seen that the solution proposed above is a do-able one which can be implemented within a short period of time. What's needed here is only the courage to do the right thing!
Until next Monday. |
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